This morning you took a ride with Honey to drop off Aunt Av for her first day of high school. You are about to start first grade tomorrow. I told you a story about how I once dropped Av off at school when she was in first grade…and in a flash she’s starting high school. A new path, a new journey…hopefully, a Road to Somewhere. Av is already very deep in her social interactions and this will be an even more crazy year for her I have no doubt. Even more startling to me was realizing just how quickly you, too, will one day soon be a teenager.
When I was younger, we were able to get our driver’s licenses at age 15. I was very fortunate to have an amazing ensemble of friends. We grew up in an era without the technology of cell phones, music streaming, and we walked miles to school in the Louisiana snow. We couldn’t wait for the weekends to drive around aimlessly, trying to meet girls, score alcohol and sneak into bars. But what really places the memories was the music. The mix cassette tapes. My friend Ben, whom you know very well, would seem to make an incredible mix just about every week…and one song was always present. It seemed to define the time so perfectly… Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere.” Let’s take that ride.
If this is the first record you pick up by Talking Heads, you may not be amazed. The band, now in their Post-Eno production era, seem to take a more simplistic, stripped down approach to the music on their 6th album (with some wonderful steel pedal and added country elements). However, I think it’s Talking Heads at their most human and that’s why this album was their most commercially successful studio album. Bassist Tina Weymouth and drummer Chris Frantz are married (see Tom Tom Club), and I believe even David Byrne has settled down a bit and all are enjoying Little Creatures of their own. Collectively…arguably as equally amazing as my own ensemble. The album, imo, is a reflection and contemplation on the normalcy of life and how great that simplicity can be. LC starts off with one of the band’s biggest hits, the power pop single “And She Was.” A track often featured on our mixes. A power move Ben would pull in high school would be dominantly occupying juke boxes at Fat Harry’s or The Boot providing that night’s soundtrack for the whole bar. This was before “skip that song” was allowed on those now archaic sound machines. “And She Was” was a mainstay. The album progresses through familial themes in the wonderful “Creatures of Love” and “Stay Up Late” and then wraps in another classic Headsian album-ending ballad, “Road To Nowhere.”
Time flies, whether you're having fun or not. I remember riding around to these songs like it was yesterday. I also feel like it was last week that I was staying up late holding you as a screaming baby “ALL NIGHT LONG.” Life will take you many places. Enjoy the Road to Nowhere my Little Creature…we’re all on it together!
Favorite Tracks: “And She Was” “Creatures of Love” “The Lady Don’t Mind” “Stay Up Late” “Road to Nowhere”
Pressing: Original USA Pressing. Sire. 1-25305, 9 25305-1. SP. 1985.